That was miles better than expected. Jitka Klimková promised that it would be but coaches always say things like that, right? She’s out here trying to reshape the Football Ferns in her vision and such a project will take time
Sarpreet Singh just wants to make sure you haven’t forgotten about him. Sixteen and a bit minutes into SSV Jahn’s game against Hannover 96 and there he was collecting the ball on the right wing and working a lil give-and-go before drilling home his third goal of the season
It’s important to keep the context of these Canadian friendlies in mind. They’re the first games with new manager Jitka Klimková in charge and she’s only got half her first-choice squad. Not only that but…
This is what Joe Bell does. Week after week. It was the 29th minute of the game away against Strømsgodset, one of VFK’s many games against teams below them on the ladder down the stretch of the season, and Bell won the ball back out on the right edge…
The whole conundrum that the Fernies find themselves in is that they’re far too good for Oceania but not yet good enough for major tournaments. The jump between those two standards is huge and they rarely get to properly test themselves against teams of a similar level.
The last time the All Whites played against Bahrain, the kiwi team won 1-0 via a header off a wing-back’s cross by the son of a well known NZ sporting personality. Almost exactly a dozen years later the same damn thing happened again.
It has not, it’s fair to say, been a good couple weeks for the NWSL. For the North Carolina Courage in particular. It was their coach who was fired after allegations of past misconduct emerged, allegations which brought into focus the frankly shocking rate of scandal in America’s top professional women’s soccer competition
What is there to be gained from a couple of sneaky friendlies at this time? For starters there’s the obvious one of ending a 692 day hiatus between fixtures for the men’s national team of Aotearoa, that’s a pretty significant one
The leaves are back on the trees. The temperature is rising. Cricketers are starting to lay claim to the local fields again. All that can only mean one thing: it’s nearly time for National League football to begin.
PSV had been bossing the contest and needed something different to break the frustration. An hour gone and it was still 0-0. Off came Ritsu Doan and Marko van Ginkel and on came Carlos Vinicius and Ryan Thomas.